What I did today 2021

[Sweet savory]

Watered the plot at dawn (ish) today. Dug last of spuds there and resowed with phaecelia.
Noticed a badger had been sniffing around near the sweetcorn so will probably have to write that off this year. It had also launched itself into the raspberries and broken the bottom wire. I didn’t think they particularly went for rasps and there are only 1 or 2 ripe ones as yet anyway. Just hoping it doesn’t get a taste for them
Also harvested a beetroot and a small purple top turnip and the last of the garlic. And put a tile under the latest squash.

[Mr Bones]

Took an early(ish) walk in Clumber park. Was lovely and cool under the trees and not at all busy.

[Mr Bones]

Lifted the maincrop onions (what a harvest ) and fitted the 5x7m net over the red kale.

[Mr Bones]

Sprinkled garlic powder over the vacated onion beds (for white rot control) and topped off with a fresh layer of compost mulch.

[Purple Primrose]

Planted out 12 kale (Nero di Toscana), 12 calabrese (Marathon), 12 cabbage (Dutchman), 12 cabbage (Savoy) and 8 Chinese Cabbage (Scansie).

[annie8]

Pulled up the last of the garlic and sowed some carrots in its place.

[Bren In Pots]

Cut down bolted chard most of it will be going in the freezer.

[ameno]

Did some squash and watermelon polinating.
I now have at least 15 squashes set, with plenty more flowers coming. The plants are really taking over.
The watermelons are finally setting fruit, too. I have three definitely set, and three more which might be. The plants are starting to take over a bit, too.

I also pruned the akebia, quince, plum and pear.

...And then the torrent came. It was an hour straight of torrential rain the like I have never seen before. It was biblical. The path down from the gate was a river, and there was a river running across the plots which occupied the dip across the middle of the site, with everything in those plots under 2-3 inches deep and 30 feet wide of fast-flowing water. Right at the bottom of the site is a communal orchard, which was half underwater. Beyond that is someone's garden, which also seemed to be underwater.
Mercifully, my plot is up the hill slightly, so was pretty much unharmed. The ones in the dip were rather more damage, though, with large sections of soil gouged out, a railway sleeper and a raise bed had been washed away, as had potato plants and carrots. And the plot nearest the entrance had had fairly large stones and half bricks, not to mention masses of gravel, washed into it. Most of the actual plants seemed surprisingly unharmed, however.

[FromYorkshiretoBucks]

Set up some string around cane tripods for the squashes.

Added some chicken manure "pellets" to the old broad bean bed in prep for adding brassicas.

Pulled up the random potato plant that had grown from a random spud in leftover compost that I added to the raised bed when I built it last year.

[Mr Bones]

Hammered a couple of stakes into the ground and roped the Borlotti frame against blustery winds.

[Bren In Pots]

Staked some of my Sunflowers they'd took a bashing in yesterdays thunderstorm.
Cut Jerusalem artichokes stems down to 5ft.

[Mr Bones]

Collected a trailer load of bagged horse muck (horse apples picked up out of the paddock so no bedding )

[ameno]

Cut down my Charlotte potatoes and one beefsteak tomato as they were infected with blight. Removed a load of leaves from the remaining plants.
Also pruned the grapes again.

[ameno]

Cut down another beefsteak tomato, stripped the leaves off the remaining two and my F3 Mountain Magic plants (not as blight resistant as I had hoped, although they did last longer than the beefsteak, at least).
Cut down all the top growth on my Rooster potatoes. It was really massive this year, for some reason. Most stems were over 4 feet tall. It's only the start of August, and these are maincrop variety, so I hope they'll give a half decent crop.
On the plus side, my peppers now have much more light, as I had rather miscalculated how large the potatoes would grow, and the peppers were on the north side of them.
My compost bin is now stuffed tight with tomato and potato plants and leaves. I really had to stuff them in tight.

Also dug up all of my onions to allow them to dry. They're very large again this year.

[peanut]

Yesterday I pulled up some horsetail, for what it's worth , tied in the climbing squashes and rearranged some of the scrambling ones which always want to grow in the wrong direction. Deadheaded a rose, watered my baskets and lifted some more charlottes.